Who decides what we read? What price will we pay for it? How will big data continue to change the book in the future – and the way we think? These are the questions that were posed by DW’s documentary Gutenberg in the Cyberstorm, which just won Best of Festival for Documentary at the US International Film and Video Festival.

The documentary was produced as a special for Arts.21 – DW’s cultural magazine. Kate Müser takes viewers on a journey from Berlin to San Francisco and back again to examine the value that books will have in the future.

DW’s Kick off! scored big at the world’s largest sports film festival in Milan. The DW documentary, “50 years of Bundesliga”, won an “Infront award” and a “mention d’honneur” at Sport Movies and TV – The 31st annual FICTS fest. The contest in Milan is the final round featuring the best films out of the year-long FICTS world challenge ­­– a 15 round circuit of film competitions held in different member countries all over the world. There were nearly 1,000 entries for the 2013 FICTS world challenge. The Fédération Internationale Cinéma Télévision Sportifs (International federation of sports cinema and television) is based in Milan and has 113 member countries from every part of the world. The contest is recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The five-part documentary series follows the German national soccer league through five decades of hard fought contests, rivalries, defeats and triumphs which turned it into the beloved institution it is today. That two German teams squared off in the final of the 2013 Champions league is a testament to the current superior status of the German national league on the world stage. The documentary has already been acquired by broadcasters in 30 countries and is a must-see for every fan of German soccer.

Classical music is a proud part of the German cultural tradition and bringing this to a world audience is something DW does very well. The DW classical music concert production Schumann at Pier 2 recently won two awards in Asia and altogether has won 12 prestigious awards at international film and TV festivals.

Schumann at Pier 2 was awarded the Gold Panda Award for most innovative film in the anthropology documentary category at the 2013 Sichuan TV Festival, one of Asia’s largest TV festivals. The DW musical documentary was among 5,000 productions from 77 countries which were submitted this year.

The judges said the film, “showed the beauty of romantic music with incentive scenes” with “gorgeous visual tone plus elegant and rhythmic music.” Director Christian Berger said that he was very pleased about winning the award and “it was our goal from the very beginning to present classical music in a contemporary way.”  In Japan the film also won the 2013 Japan Record Academy Award, a prestigious award in Japan given out for classical music productions.
The film is a two-part series that gives takes you inside the rehearsals for a special presentation of Schumann’s four symphonies at Bremen’s Pier2. You can watch the film here online.

Namati’s World was featured on Global Ideas – DW’s blog covering the people who work to fight climate change and global warming.

At the 2013 World Media Festival in Hamburg, DW programming won three gold awards in competition with over 600 entries coming from 36 countries. The festival, hosted by intermedia, is an international competition that celebrates modern media. The DW documentary Schumann at Pier 2, an all access musical journey featuring special performances of Schumann’s four symphonies, won first prize in the category Documentaries – Arts. DW’s weekly magazine covering all things online, Shift – Living in the digital age, won gold in the category Documentaries- Magazine Formats. Namati’s World – The dreams and fears of a young coral in the South Pacific is a web documentary that tells the story of a 114-year-old brain coral with captivating underwater footage taken off the coast of the Pacific archipelago nation of Vanuatu. The multimedia production won the gold in Education and E-Learning. DW programming also received five silver awards in a wide range of categories.

DW’s blog and social media awards has relaunched its website with a new look and a new logo. The Bobs – Best of online activism – has been recognizing the best independent bloggers and citizen journalists since 2004 and is just one way that DW contributes to promoting freedom of expression and the upholding of human rights around the world. This year, the contest has added three additional languages – Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian – opening the contest’s categories to a total of 14 languages.

Find out more at thebobs.com